Planning Advice Note 67: housing quality

Planning Advice Note PAN 67 Housing Quality

Case Study 2 - Whittle Hall, Warrington

English Partnerships produced a General Development Brief for Whittle Hall. This set out a range of design principles and key criteria. Following on from that was a more detailed document which listed site specific written requirements. This built on the principles already established by the brief.

English Partnerships was keen to set out a complete list of key criteria which had to be addressed on both sites. From the developers perspective, this meant that everybody was tendering with the same information. However, if any tender failed to meet the criteria - it was automatically judged invalid. These strict bid conditions required urban designers to adhere to a strict interpretation of the brief.

Whilst the proactive approach and clarity of vision adopted by English Partnerships has been demanding on developers, with a lot of forward planning required, the overall process has meant that individuality and variation in the standard house types has been vastly increased. Everything had to be considered down to the last detail. For example, detailed traffic management plans and scaffold designs.

The sketches illustrate the designs of Bett Homes who won the competition.